Sealver has started the past four games for the Patriots, and has 23 tackles and 3 sacks. Projected over a season, that's like 100 tackles and 12 sacks!

And geez louise, he is being credited for turning around the Patriots run defense by himself (I know, I know, they still suck at run d) by the Boston media!

How in the world is a guy like this completely wiffed on by three teams? Amazing.

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Siliga was a free agent, available to anyone. The Seahawks had cut the third-year pro, signed him to their practice squad and cut him again. Seattle wasn’t the first team to give up on Siliga. The 49ers originally signed the Utah product when he went undrafted in 2011 and released him before Week 1 of that season. The Broncos picked him up and carried him on their roster, split between the practice squad and active roster for two seasons before they traded him to the Seahawks for reserve offensive lineman John Moffitt in Aug. 2013.

It seems impossible that a player who has bounced around the NFL for three seasons could be the cure-all to a unit that ranked 31st in the league in rushing yards per game entering Week 15. They were giving up 132.5 yards per game and 4.4 per carry. Siliga has played well, but he’s likely not the cure to the struggling unit, just the best fill in the Patriots currently have.

When Siliga was on the field against the Browns in Week 14, his first game as a starter, the Patriots allowed 39 yards on 20 carries to running backs for a clip of 1.95 yards per carry. New England allowed 64 yards on 17 carries for 3.8 yards per carry when Siliga was on the field on Sunday against the Dolphins. The Patriots allowed 4.3 yards per carry on designed runs throughout the game.

After getting released Oct. 4 by the Seattle Seahawks, he spent almost a month out of football. That was rock bottom, he thought.

After trying out with multiple teams, Siliga found a home Oct. 23 when he was signed to the Patriots practice squad. Even then, never did the defensive tackle think things would turn out like this.

Standing in the locker room yesterday at Gillette Stadium after a 34-20 Patriots win over the Buffalo Bills, all he could do was smile. Coming off the best game of his career — a team-high nine tackles, one sack and one forced fumble — Siliga now heads to the playoffs as a starter on the AFC’s second-seeded team.

“It’s been the craziest thing I have ever experienced,” Siliga said. “I mean, going from how I started the season — getting traded (to Seattle) and then getting cut, and coming here on the practice squad. For it to end like this, words can’t explain it.”

Siliga has started the past four games, and his presence has helped shore up a defensive line that was decimated by injuries to Vince Wilfork and Tommy Kelly. With each start — against Cleveland, Miami, Baltimore and Buffalo — the line has started to come together.